Often it becomes necessary to collect a sample of blood, fluid or gas from the closed circulatory systems of a human, animal or machine, and preserve this sample for further processing. The sample collected may be subjected to laboratory testing or evaluation, such that the integrity of the collected sample must be maintained during the collecting procedures. It is necessary to avoid secondary infection or contamination of the personnel collecting the sample, e.g. from the donor's intravenous medicament delivery system. For this reason, it is preferred that none of the apparatii being utilized to collect the sample have any exposed sharp points or edges which could inadvertently scratch or pierce the handler's skin, resulting in secondary infection or contamination to their own body's systems. This secondary infection becomes particularly worrisome when samples must be collected frequently; i.e., every few hours or when the donor or the one being medicated has a loathsome, incurable or fatal disease or when the medicament is a hazardous material. In those situations, where frequent samples must be collected, the probability of human error significantly rises.
The prior art for collecting blood samples from, e.g., the piping of an intravenous medicament delivery system of a patient being medicated or fed intravenously through an artery, requires the use of at least two sterile syringes, at least one injection needle mounted on one of the syringes and several collection vials. The known design components of intravenous medicament delivery systems include: a reservoir of medicament or the like, piping to transport the medicament, and an arterial entry needle. The transport piping assembly usually includes an integral four-way stopcock to access samples of blood or other material flowing through the delivery system piping. These stopcocks typically have an access port with a removable cap and a control lever to direct the through flow, side flow or non-flow of the fluid. The stopcock is therefore, a non-removable element of the delivery piping which connects the intravenous medicament reservoir to the arterial entry needle which is inserted into an artery on a patient or subject when in use.
Typically, the person who does the collecting of the samples, must gather together the above apparatii and some absorbent toweling or the like to absorb spillage. The stopcock directional lever is first moved from the through-flow position to the non-flow position. The cap is removed from the access port on the four-way stopcock and the end of the syringe to which an injection needle is customarily attached, is inserted into that access port. The known design of the syringe end effects a seal when it is forced home into the conical bore of the access port. The stopcock directional lever may then be moved to the side-flow position which permits fluid in the piping between the stopcock and the patient to empty from the piping through the stopcock into that first syringe. This flow is permitted to continue until the material being collected visually appears to be primarily fluid of the patient, as contrasted to intravenous medicament fluid. The stopcock is then returned to the non-flow position, and the first syringe is removed from the access port and replaced with the second syringe. The stopcock directional lever is again switched to the side-flow position and substantially pure patient fluid, blood or the like, is collected inside the second syringe, while it is forceably connected to the stopcock access port.
After the collecting of patient's fluid or material sample is complete, the stopcock directional lever is again placed in the non-flow position and the syringe is removed from the access port. The syringe is set aside while the stopcock directional lever is moved to its second side-flow position which permits intravenous medicament fluid to wash the patient fluid out through the access port. The wash through fluid is usually collected into some absorbent toweling which is then discarded. The stopcock directional lever is then returned to its non-flow position as the access port's cap is replaced over the port. Now the stopcock directional lever may be returned to its original through-flow position.
An injection needle is mounted onto each syringe containing the substantially pure patient fluid or blood so that the fluid may be injected through the self sealing capping membrane of evacuated container(s) of known construction. The evacuated container(s) are transported to the sample processing facility, while the syringes, needles, absorbent toweling and packing materials are all discarded in a proper infectious/hazardous waste container. It is critical to note that the acts involved in the manual handling of the sharp and now contaminated needles, and the now contaminated absorbent toweling present a grave danger of secondary infection or contamination, which could prove fatal to the personnel handling them, including physicians, nurses, laboratory staff and hospital staff.